Thread: Is IS?

IS = Isolated System

Does the evidence that our universe began with a BigBang (BB) also indicate that for all practicle purposes ours is an effectively Isolated System (IS)? I am not contending that there was nothing behind our BB, I am just contending that the BB effectively cuts us off from whatever was or is there.
aguy2

Our universe would be an isolated system but that does not mean that an unimaginable distance away there are not many other universes like ours scattered throughout a real infinity.

I subscribe to the theory that branes can interact, and gravitons can travel to parallel universes! (It was me that voted no).

In my experience, not many people ...grok... infinity. Even fewer do so habitually.

History shows that human minds invent containers for the "everything", and our containers keep exploding. We could go on designing wider & deeper containers forever. Shouldn't we be embarrassed by now?

Originally Posted by Michael_Roberts

I subscribe to the theory that branes can interact, and gravitons can travel to parallel universes! (It was me that voted no).

You can't present any observable evidence that such things as "branes" actually exist, let alone "interact", can you?
Can your 'subscription' be legitimately seen as a faith and belief it such things?
aguy2

Originally Posted by Pong

In my experience, not many people ...grok... infinity. Even fewer do so habitually.

For the last couple of years I have been wasting alot of my cyberlife on Atheist discussion boards, and they "grok" infinities/enternities up the gazoozoo. So much so that their faith and belief, in what I see as 'woo-woo', seems to constitute one of the 4 pillars of Atheology.
aguy2

Ps. I can't seem to get 'quotes' right here.

Infinite space would be so large it encompasses not only our universe but countless others. (Not saying that space is infinite, just appling logic!)

Its the nature of infinity!

Originally Posted by Michael_Roberts

Infinite space would be so large it encompasses not only our universe but countless others. (Not saying that space is infinite, just appling logic!)
Its the nature of infinity!

I am contending that, except as abstractions, infinities and eternities do not exist in our IS (Isolated System). IOW, in the real world, infinities and eternities are woo-woo.
aguy2

Thats the nature of infinity tho. Even if all the rooms in the "infinite hotel" were booked up there would still be one more.

Originally Posted by Michael_Roberts

Thats the nature of infinity tho. Even if all the rooms in the "infinite hotel" were booked up there would still be one more.

Your "hotel" is an abstract construct that only exists within your mind. It is an internally generated hallucination that does not (can not?) exist in the real world.

Somewhere along the line (maybe as late as only 50-70K years ago) your ancestors developed the ability to 'abstract out' thin slices of the ongoing processes that are the exclusive content of our context, and began to examine these imaginary constructs as if they were real. We know this because these ancestors began to attempt to represent these abstractions in what we call 'art'.

I am not trying to downplay this acquired mental 'trick'. Our ability to internally generate 'abstract thought' has got to where we are today, and is (and will likely remain) the most useful tool we have available to us when we attempt to try and make sense of the world around us. I am using this ability (talent?) right now, as I am, internally, 'abstracting out (objectifying)' the 'abstraction' of what we call 'abstract thought'!
aguy2

Its the nature of infinity I'm describing, I'm not actually saying that it exists or not.

Originally Posted by Michael_Roberts

Its the nature of infinity I'm describing, I'm not actually saying that it exists or not.

Doesn't your phrase, "the nature of infinity" imply that such absurdities exist in nature, and are not just hallucinated abstractions?
aguy2

Im just stating what infinity means, so people dont confuse it for very large! And your confusing my usage of the word nature, nature as in desciption not as in mother earth! And don't pull my up on mother earth, because its a metaphor - man made of course.

Michael,
Do you believe that what you calling "infinities" exist in the real world?
A "yes" or "no" will do.
aguy2

the mind has an infinite possibilities for thought so yes.

Originally Posted by Michael_Roberts

the mind has an infinite possibilities for thought so yes.

Does this mean:
1. that you are agreeing with me that infinity/eternities only exist as abstract thought?
2. that you are claiming that someone can think an infinite number of thoughts in a finite lifetime? or
3. that because we can think about such things, this means they must be real?
aguy2